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Swiss Belatedly Pardon Hero Who Saved 3,000 Jews

December 01, 1995|By Gary Borg.

ST. GALLEN — A former police chief sacked from his post 55 years ago for saving thousands of Jews was granted a full pardon Thursday from a Swiss court.

After Hitler invaded Austria in August 1938, the Swiss government imposed a mandatory visa requirement on Jews fleeing the Nazis. But Paul Grueninger, chief of the St. Gallen canton police, defied the government, letting Jews cross the border and then backdating immigration papers to prevent them from being expelled. He is thought to have saved some 3,000 Jews, but because he lost his pension after being fired, he died in poverty in 1972.

On Thursday, Judge Werner Baldegger, presiding in the same court where Grueninger was convicted, said the court was now satisfied Grueninger had acted "out of necessity."

Until recently, the Swiss government defended its strict wartime policy on cross-border movement of Jews on grounds that it could not have foreseen the persecution.